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  2. Employee Directory
  3. Steven Wills, Ph.D.
  2. Employee Directory
  3. Steven Wills, Ph.D.
Steven Wills, Ph.D.

Steven Wills, Ph.D.

Professor of History
History Department Chair
Modern Japanese History
Department
History
Office location

Old Main 311

Office hours

By appointment

Email
swills [at] NebrWesleyan.edu
Phone

(402) 465-2443

Headshot of Steven Wills, Ph.D.
Background

My main research interest is the social and cultural history of Tokyo in the 19th and 20th centuries. My dissertation focused on fire and firefighting in the city during the Edo period (1603-1868), and I am currently conducting research on the city's various responses to its fire problem after the 1868 Meiji Restoration.

Education

Columbia University:

  • Ph.D., 2010. East Asian Languages and Cultures.
    • Dissertation: “Fires and Fights: Urban Conflagration, Governance, and Society in Edo-Tokyo, 1657-1890â€
  • M.Phil., 2006. East Asian Languages and Cultures.
    • Fields: premodern Japanese history, modern Japanese history, early modern Japanese literature, environmental history
  • M.A., 2004. East Asian Languages and Cultures.
    • Master’s Thesis: “Fissures in the Road: Conflicting Views of Modern Japan Seen in Responses to the Great Kanto Earthquakeâ€

University of Puget Sound:

  • B.A., 1997. English Literature.
Courses taught
  • [DI-GL, Going Global].............World Civilizations: A Survey of the Global Twentieth Century
  • [WI].................................. Collective Memory and the Historian’s Craft
  • [WI, DI-GL, Identity]................ Introduction to East Asian History
  • [WI, DI-GL]................................ Introduction to Japanese History
  • [WI, DI-GL]................................ Modern Chinese History
  • ............................................Meiji: The Making of Modern Japan
  • ..........................................Twilight of the Samurai: Early Modern Japan
  • ..........................................Japanese Popular Culture, Past & Present
  • ......................................................The Climate Crisis: A Crash Course
  • .................................................Experiencing the Culture of Japan (2-week study trip to Japan)
Research and academic interests
  • History of humans and the environment
  • Disaster history
  • Urban social/cultural history
  • Collective memory
  • History of the news